Recordings of the Urgent broadcast and later SOS broadcast made by ms Prinsendam which was on fire and burning out of control due to a fire in the engine room in the Gulf of Alaska. Chief Radio Officer, Jack van der Zee (he was from Beek, Netherlands) on the Netherlands Antilles registered cruise ship "ms Prinsendam" on October 4, 1980. He sent this to United States Coast Guard Communications Station Kodiak, Alaska (COMMSTA KODIAK/NOJ). COMMSTA KODIAK advised him that due to the late hour and most of the ship's in the vicinity only have one operator who was off radio watch, that an SOS should be sent preceded by the international auto alarm to activate the autoalarm receivers on nearby ships and ring a bell on the bridge and in the Radio Officer's cabin. A short while later CRO van der Zee sent out an SOS what is most remarkable about this is that the Captain of ms Prinsendam directed him to only send out the message as an Urgent message or XXX. CRO van der Zee was unsuccessful in convincing him that an SOS was needed, but the Captain remembered that once a ship sent out SOS it entitled rescuing vessels to salvage rights. CRO van der Zee literally feeling the heat from the deck through his shoes made the courageous decision to accept the penalty of disobedience which was loss of his license, fines and imprisonment and sent out the Captain's message as an Distress or SOS message instead of an Urgent or XXX message as he was ordered. CRO van der Zee reasoned: "If I send this as an XXX no one will hear it besides the Coast Guard, if I send it as SOS I will send the autoalarm signals and the nearby cargo ships will be notified that there is a distress. If I loose my license, get fined, and go to jail, at least I will be alive and so will the passengers and crew, God willing." Queen Beatrix who had just ascended to the throne of the Netherlands shortly before this event was to award CRO Jack van der Zee the Order of Netherlands Lion, a type of knighthood for his courageous actions in willing to do the right thing despite the possible consequences of jail and loosing his livelihood, his pension and his financial security for him and his family.

A copy of the original hand written radio logbook from "TT Williamsburgh" WGOA is included. This log is signed by Chief Radio Officer of "ms Prinsendam", Jack van der Zee, Chief Radio Officer of "TT Williamsburgh", James N. Pfister, and Observing Radio Officer, David J. Ring, Jr. An "Observing Radio Officer" is a fully qualified and licensed USCG Radio Officer who needed to obtain the FCC required six months sea endorsement before sailing as a sole Radio Officer on a ship.

[1] A copy of the official radio log of EXXON NEW ORLEANS/WNDM has been kindly provided by the radio officer, Richard Singer. Richard keeps an excellent log, is an excellent R/O and can send Morse beautifully as anyone who has heard him on the air as K6KSG can attest.

[2] Also a picture of the QSL (verification) card of amateur radio station, N1EA which features a artist's rendering of the ship blaze and lifeboats with survivors is included.

[3] A PDF file of the Radio Log of  supertanker "WILLIAMSBURGH" / WGOA (call sign) is also included. Notice that there is no URGENT or XXX broadcast contained in the logbook. That is because the first broadcast went out as an XXX / URGENT and could not and was not preceded by the Auto Alarm signal which if sent would and did activate the auto alarm receiver on nearby vessels - including WILLIAMSBURH. That's why sending the SOS was important: because along with it, the auto alarm could be sent to wake up all the nearby cargo ships with one operator who only worked 8 hours a day.

[5] Two video files of news coverage of PRINSENDAM rescue and aftermath are in the archive at http://archive.org/details/MsPrinsendamSosDistressOct.41980_292

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